[SunRescue] INFO: LX memory

[James Lockwood]

On Fri, 3 Sep 1999, Matthew Haas wrote:

> I had also gotten the impression that the TGX was a 24-bit framebuffer.
> And as you have shown, it does not appear to be such. Is this true?

The TGX is 8-bit.  More VRAM (such as in the TGX+) only serves to increase
possible resolutions and add double-buffering.

> If so, then is there such a framebuffer available which is 24-bit that can
> be used in these SBUS-based pre-Sun4u SPARCs? 

I recommend that you read the Framebuffer FAQ.  In a nutshell:

If you have a Sparc 20, you can get an SX VSIMM.  This is the best choice
(much faster than the other solutions and fully supported).

If you have a Sparc 5, you can get the AFX-bus S24 card.  This is
supported, but slow.

If you don't need to have support for the latest versions of Solaris, you
can get a ZX, TZX, GS, or GT card.  The ZX/TZX can be made to work under
Solaris 7 for the most part but are slow at 2D operations and not
supported in Sun's OpenGL.  The GS and GT will not work past Solaris 2.4
and are even slower.

Southland Media used to sell the "MGX+", which was a nice snappy 24-bit
sbus card.  Unfortunately, they no longer support it, and the drivers that
they shipped have notable problems under Solaris 2.6 and 7.

If you have to have 24-bit color on an LX then your best bet is probably
a used ZX card.  This would take up both slots and run _hot_.  If you can,
it's probably better to deal with 8-bit for a while and then trade up to
either a SS20/SX or a low-end Ultra.  IMHO it doesn't make sense to sink
that much money into an LX when you could get a better system on the
cheap.

-James